A number of high-profile macro funds have rebounded sharply in November. Through November 14 Robert Citrone’s Discovery Global Macro Fund, managed by his South Norwalk, Connecticut–based firm Discovery Capital Management, had gained 5.50 percent, cutting its loss for the year to about 12 percent. The firm’s Discovery Global Opportunity Fund returned 5 percent and is now down about 7.4 percent for the year, according to a document from investment bank HSBC that tracks hedge fund performance. Through November 18 Andrew Law’s Caxton Global Investment, managed by New York–based Caxton Associates was up 1.56 percent for the month, trimming its loss for the year to 5 percent. Meanwhile, Paul Tudor Jones II’s Tudor BVI fund, managed by Greenwich, Connecticut–based Tudor Investment Corp., is back in the black after gaining about 1.86 percent for the month through November 14, putting it up about 1.4 percent for the year.
Elsewhere, Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, managed by his New York firm Trian Fund Management, gained about 3 percent for the month through November 14 and is now up about 10.4 percent for the year. William Ackman’s Pershing Square International, managed by New York–based Pershing Square Capital Management, is up 1.9 percent for the month through November 18 and is now up about 35.3 percent for the year.
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Thomas Sandell’s Sandell Asset Management fired off a press release gleefully pointing out that proxy advisory firm ISS is recommending that shareholders of JDS Uniphase vote against director Martin Kaplan, chairman of the company’s governance committee. Sandell is calling on shareholders to vote again Kaplan as well as CEO and director Thomas Waechter. We noted earlier this month that Sandell also criticized the maker of fiber optic networking equipment for announcing the date of its annual meeting with exactly 60 days notice, which it asserted “rendered it effectively impossible” for the New York activist hedge fund firm from submitting director nominations in time since JDS Uniphase’s bylaws require director nominations to be submitted at least 60 days prior to the meeting.
In Monday’s press release, Sandell quotes from the ISS report, which states: “It does appear that the company, particularly in adopting a nomination bylaw that made the actual date of the upcoming meeting critical…and then announcing that critical date just as time ran out for the nomination window, appears to have actively attempted to frustrate the exercise of elemental shareholder rights.” The ISS report also says Kaplan “bears direct responsibility” for these actions, according to Sandell.
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Kenneth Griffin’s Chicago-based Citadel disclosed it owns nearly 1.9 million shares, or 5 percent, of Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp., a real estate investment trust (REIT) that leases single-family properties in eight states. At the end of the third quarter, the hedge fund firm owned just over 1.7 million shares.
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The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) named two new directors to the AIMA Council, its global governing body. They are Martin Pabari, chief operating officer of CQS, a London-based multistrategy hedge fund firm, and Fiona Carpenter, a partner at EY, the tax, auditing and advisory services firm.
